December Visit
by Luxraays
Summary: Small fics for an AU where Strip and Lynda Weathers raise Cal instead of his actual parents. Humanized.
1. Chapter 1: December Visit

Strip glanced at his rear view mirror as the station-wagon pulled up to a red light. Reaching up to adjust it, he made eye contact with his nephew who sat behind Lynda's seat. Cal was staring at him while hugging a cardboard box, its sides were too big for his arms to fully wrap around. He started carrying it in the beginning of December and it had been cute watching the six year old waddle around with it, though whenever Strip or Lynda asked what was inside he insisted that they waited until mid December.

Cal smiled and after Strip returned the gesture, turned to face the window and watch as they parked several yards away from their destination. He gazed at the large granite sign slowly passing by. The first time he came here he had been too young to read the curly font. But even now that he was in first grade, he realized that the only word he could understand was _Park_. Funny, he thought. It didn't look anything like the parks near home and it most definitely wasn't a place where people go to have fun.

"So," Lynda turned in her seat to look at him. "Are you finally gonna tell us what's in the box?"

"Not yet, Auntie Lynda. You have to wait until the middle of December." Cal rested his chin on the lid and blinked his round, brown eyes at her. They reminded Lynda of his father's eyes, always naive and curious.

"Cal, it's already the middle of December."

"You can see it later! I promise."

Strip hadn't even shut off the engine yet when Cal leapt out of the car and took off towards the gates. The Dinoco racer stepped out of the vehicle just in time to see his nephew fall flat on his face, comically tossing the box out of the way in fear of crushing it.

"You okay, Cal?" He and Lynda held back amused grins as they went to check on him.

"Uh-huh. I fell." Cal rolled over and sat up, flashing them a sheepish grin before stuffing his laces into his shoes.

"Don't you ever run off like that again, okay sweetie? You could've gotten lost and we wouldn't know where to find you!" Lynda pulled his laces out and retied them for him, thinking to herself how this would be the third time she'd have to re-teach him once they got home.

"Do you remember what to do if you get lost?" Strip tested Cal's memory. "Stay where you are, and-"

"-Don't talk to strangers who say they can take me home. I remember, Uncle Strip."

"Good." Lynda dusted Cal off and hugged him tight. "And there's no need to rush, we have plenty of time to see them today."

Strip handed the box back to Cal before placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. He wrapped his other arm around Lynda's waist and looked up at the gate in front of them.

"Let's go. We don't wanna keep 'em waiting."

* * *

They were buried in the leftmost column, third row up from the back next to a medium sized oak tree. Strip had only seen it bare branched and bony in the winter. It scared Cal the first time he came, so he made a note to himself to bring everyone here again in the summer, when it could give them a more pleasant welcome.

He would have to take it up to Cal and Lynda first, then to Tex and ask for a few days off of training. There would definitely be complications with his schedule, he'd probably have to spend twice as many hours on the track every day to make up for lost time.

But for Cal, it was all worth it.

A cold gust of wind brought him out of his thoughts and he could feel Lynda hugging his arm tightly as the family slowly approached the two stone markers.

Eric Weathers.

Tamara Weathers.

The three of them stood and stared for what seemed like ages until Cal finally stepped forward. Strip and Lynda watched in silence as their nephew brushed the dead leaves off the headstones and wiped the plaques clean. He opened up the box and started placing brightly colored flowers and decorations all over.

"Need some help with that, kiddo?" Cal heard Strip's voice behind him. He looked up at his aunt and uncle as they both knelt down on each side of him.

"Mmhmm." He nodded and turned his attention back to the decorations. "I think Mommy and Daddy would be happy with that."

They got to work, placing the flowers and wrapping the tombstones in colorful streamers. When they ran out, Strip rummaged around the bottom the box to look for more but was surprised when he pulled out several different items instead.

Crayon drawings. Glittery cards. Hand paintings.

Two years worth of missed birthdays, Mother's, and Father's day presents.

Strip's expression sobered and he shared glances with Lynda, who blinked away her tears and continued placing the flowers. Cal carefully arranged the gifts in the front and admired his work before sitting down and starting his yearly routine.

"Hey Mommy, hey Daddy."

Visits were one day out of three hundred sixty five. He had to make them count.

"I missed you."

He tuned the rest of the world out, fixated on the two names engraved in stone. Neither Strip nor Lynda dared to interrupt him now.

"I'm in first grade now! We're learning how to add and subtract numbers and my teacher used cookies to show us how…"

Everything the little six year old wanted to share suddenly spilled out, and for a whole hour he talked about what he learned in school, all the new friends he made, his dream of becoming a racer like Uncle Strip, and how happy he was living with him and Auntie Lynda. All year he'd been excited to tell his late mother and father everything and imagined their reactions. He always thought they'd answer with praise and tell him how much they loved him.

But when he finished, all he heard were the sounds of distant traffic.

He didn't know why he expected a response. His excitement disappeared and his chest felt empty as he looked away from the vivid decorations. The bleak wintry graves all around reminded him of where he was. A cemetery. Mommy and Daddy were gone. Now they were just two slabs of rock that he stared at once every year.

Despite his trembling, he felt his whole body suddenly weighing as heavy as the gravestones. His breath hitched as he tried to calm himself and he vaguely remembered feeling this way the last time he came. Uncle Strip and Auntie Lynda comforted him that day and told him his parent's would've been happy with everything he did. They would've been so proud.

But he'd never know for sure.

"C'mon, Cal." After what felt like forever, Strip's voice broke through the silence. Cal felt his uncle's hand on his shoulder and he wiped the tears running down his face.

"It's time to go home."


	2. Chapter 2: Mother's Day

**Author's Note:** Hello! Just wanted to let you all know that there's no chronological order to these chapters, but if there's any confusion about the character's age I'd be more than happy to have a list at the end of the chapters. Thanks for reading everyone!

* * *

Cal sat at his desk and stared at the coloring book in front of him. The Dinoco race car with cartoonish eyes stared right back, half colored in and smiling patiently. If everyone were cars, the seven year old thought, this particular car would've been Uncle Strip. Picking up the brightest blue crayon he could find, he continued to fill in the rest of the image.

"Can anyone tell me what special day is coming up this weekend?" He could hear his teacher, Ms. Reilly, from the front of the class. Cal didn't listen, he was carefully trying to color in the car's incredibly thin spoiler with the blunt crayon. Where were those cool crayon sharpeners when he needed one?

Several small, eager hands went up in the air and the teacher pointed to each of them one by one.

"Saturday!"

"Sunday...?"

"Cry because you have to go back to school day?" Several children giggled.

"It's Mother's Day!"

A streak of blue went out of the lines. Now the race car had an extra spoiler sticking out of its first one, which actually made a huge improvement design wise.

"That's right, Bobby!" Ms. Reilly beamed at her students. "And today you're all going to make cards for your mothers to give on Sunday, as a way of showing how much you love her."

Cal sighed at his ruined picture and looked around as his classmates excitedly began clearing their desks for the project. He quickly stuffed the coloring book into his bag and watched a few students pass out art supplies.

With his mom and dad passing a few years back, he didn't see any reason to keep celebrating Mother's and Father's Day. In first grade, he had gotten questions and stares when he raised his hand and asked how someone without parents could celebrate them. Having learned his lesson, he now kept silent and went along with the activities so no one would pay him any attention.

"What color do you want? Ms. Reilly says a card can be made with just one paper." Bobby came up to him and held out a rainbow of construction paper. Cal eyed the baby blue at the bottom of the stack. Blue was a big deal in the Weathers family. His uncle's race car was blue, as was the station wagon and most of the clothes everyone wore. Auntie Lynda joked that Uncle Strip thought he looked unphotogenic in any other color, to which his uncle vehemently denied and said that it was to support his racing sponsor. Either way, Cal didn't have the heart to tell them both that his favorite color was red.

"Can I have two blue ones?"

"You got two moms, Cal?"

"Yes," he said automatically. Bobby stared at him. "Wait- I mean no. I don't have... I was just asking-"

"No fair," Brick pouted from across the table, "how come Cal gets two moms?"

"I don't have two moms!" Bobby started cracking up and Cal covered his face in embarrassment.

"I was just playing with you," Bobby grinned and put down two blue pieces of paper on Cal's desk, "it doesn't matter if you got one, two, or ten moms, dads, or whatever. As long as you love each other that's what matters, right?"

"Y-Yeah. Right."

Even when Bobby left the table, his words still lingered in Cal's mind. He was right, not everyone had a mom and a dad. He might not have his parents anymore, but with Uncle Strip and Auntie Lynda, he realized wasn't really missing out on anything. Cal felt a lot of weight lift off his shoulders at that thought and smiled.

"Could you imagine having ten moms?" Brick suddenly spoke up. For some reason, he hoarded all of the green crayons and was using them on green construction paper. "You'd have to make so many presents."

Cal just rolled his eyes and got to work.

* * *

Lynda woke up to warm sunlight filtering down on her. It was mornings like these where she wished her husband was in bed with her and not across the country training for a race. With a yawn, she sat up and got herself ready for the day anyway.

Normally, she prided herself on being the first to wake among the family of three, but the sounds of kitchen cabinets opening and closing told her that someone else had beaten her to making breakfast. Lynda glanced at the clock on the nightstand and to her surprise, it read seven thirty in the morning. She knew Cal was an early bird like her, but what was a kid like him doing up on a Sunday?

When she stepped into the kitchen, her nephew was facing her with a huge box of cereal behind his back.

"Morning, Auntie Lynda."

"Good morning, Cal. What're you doin' up so early?"

"Nothing." He blinked his cute brown eyes at her, hoping she would buy it.

She obviously didn't. "Uh-huh. Then what's that there on the table?"

"Orange juice."

"Orange juice?" Lynda had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing. All she saw was an orange placed inside of a cup.

"We ran out!" Cal huffed and put the cereal on the table, crestfallen about his failed surprise. "I wanted to make breakfast for you."

"Aw, really? Now ain't that just the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me! Thank you, Cal." The little boy looked down at his feet bashfully.

"You're welcome, Auntie Lynda. Oh wait- I have something else for you too!" And before she could even ask, Cal had already zipped out of the kitchen.

Smiling and shaking her head, Lynda sat down and ate a spoonful of her breakfast. There was too much cereal and too little milk, but she wouldn't have it any other way.

Cal came running back out with something brightly colored in his hand and proudly presented it to his aunt. "This is for you."

She stared at the glittery blue card, completely at a loss for words. Taking the card and opening it, the inside revealed a drawing of her and Cal playing together, with a string of sentences at the bottom:

 _"I don't have a mom anymore but that's ok. My Auntie Lynda is like a mom to me now. She loves me a lot and I love her too. Happy Mother's Day Auntie Lynda!"_

"Ms. Reilly helped me spell some of the words." Cal swayed slightly on his feet.

"Oh goodness, Cal...it's beautiful."

Lynda found herself having to dry her eyes before pulling her nephew into a tight hug. He hugged her back, burying his face into her shirt, the emptiness left behind by his late mother filling up.

She let him go and looked him up and down. "Did you have breakfast yet, sweetie?"

"Yeah, before you woke up."

"Alright, then why don't you run along and play for a bit? I'll come join you in a moment."

Lynda watched as Cal took off before making a beeline towards the kitchen phone. She stood by the wall mount and gazed lovingly at her gift as the number dialed. Strip picked up on the other end of the line, and she was eager to tell him about what happened that morning.


	3. Chapter 3: Up All Night

He's sitting in the living room, staring at the brightly colored cars zooming around inside the television. He doesn't know which race it is, just that it's a rerun from a few days prior. It's dark and he can't tell what time of day it is, his neck is strangely stiff as he turns his head to look around for a clock, like he'd been sitting in the same spot for forever.

His eyes drift away from the screen and towards the metallic frame of an old family portrait where four figures stand in front of a driveway. Strip, with his arms around Lynda, and Eric, leaning in to kiss Tamara while she held their son. Judging by how tiny Cal looked, he reckons the photo was taken three years ago.

He could've sworn he hung the picture in the bedroom and not above the TV.

"It's pretty dark, lemme turn on a light." Strip feels like his mouth is stuffed with cotton. He opens and closes it again, and the feeling disappears as quickly as it came.

"No, no. It's fine the way it is." Eric insists. They sit in silence for a bit longer until Strip realizes he can't understand a thing on the TV. There's only garbled static coming from the screen.

"Where's Lynda? And Tamara?"

"They're upstairs with Cal." His older brother doesn't take his eyes off of the race.

"What are we doin'?"

"You okay, Sunshine? You're askin' a bunch of weird questions."

Something's out of place, he doesn't know what. There's an uneasy feeling in his chest but he just swallows thickly and nods.

"Yeah," Strip says. "I'm good." The sound from the TV clears up a bit but he still can't make out the words. "What about you?"

"What about me."

"Are you okay too?"

Eric laughs. It's a deep and clear laugh that's reminiscent of their father's and makes Strip smile. It's been some time since he got to hear it.

"I've never felt better."

The feeling worsens but he plays it cool. "Really? Thought you'd be exhausted, with a kid like Cal always out and about."

"Doesn't matter what kinda kid you have, they'll always be a pain one way or another. But Cal's gonna grow up to be great, I know it."

"Think he'll be a racer?"

"Do I _think_? That's all he ever talks about!" Eric groans, but the corners of his mouth are turned upwards. "He's always sayin' how he's gonna be a famous racer like his Uncle Strip, how he's gonna be Dinoco's new golden boy and show off his pretty blue race car with a trunk full of Piston cups. It's givin' me and Tam gray hairs just thinkin' about it!"

"Hey now, don't put the blame on me. Racing's in our blood." Strip finds himself laughing despite everything he's feeling.

"I'm givin' you responsibility of raisin' him too, you know."

"What? You know that ain't a good idea."

"You're the only racer in the family right now. Who else is gonna teach my son how to tear up the track? Besides," Eric turns to look Strip in the eyes, the humor in his tone fading, "things can change in a matter of seconds. You of all people should know that."

Strip isn't sure how to react, the mood of the conversation switched too suddenly for the weight of his brother's words to sink in all the way.

"With the way you're talkin' it sounds like you're gonna leave Cal here with us."

"Well, we _are_ doin' that. For like three days. Vacation, you know." Eric shrugs and Strip rolls his eyes. "Just promise me you'll help him when Tam and I can't?"

"Of course!" Strip's not sure why Eric had to ask. "Lynda and I'll help out in any way we can. I promise."

"Thanks, Sunshine." As if on cue, Lynda and Tamara come down the stairs, chatting and laughing, glowing even in the dimly lit room.

"Cal's tucked in and out like a light." Tamara looks perplexedly at the two men sitting in the dark and flips the light switch on. The room still looks dark and fuzzy, and the TV screen is somehow brighter and more offensive than ever. Strip blinks a few times and Eric stands up.

"We should be headin' out now." His brother's words hurt for some reason. He can't quite place why or where.

They exchange hugs and handshakes, and as Strip watches them head towards the door he feels forlorn. He wants them to stay.

"Hey, you two drive safe now you hear?"

"I oughta be the one tellin' _you_ that." His brother's laugh sounds filtered and far away. The walls and floor meld together before fading into the shadows, swallowing up everything but the four standing by the doorway. TV static buzzes in Strip's ears and his concentration starts slipping, but he fights to keep himself awake, to hear his brother's goodbye.

"...And don't worry too much about Cal, he's not that bad if you can get past all the runnin' around."

They show themselves out the door, and before Eric closes it, he turns to smile fondly at Strip one last time.

"You'll do great."

* * *

The visit was real, Strip remembers that much, but the conversation with his brother was something entirely new.

It's three in the morning when he opens his eyes. His cheeks are wet and his chest aches with each shaky breath, but he's too tired to do anything about it. He just lays there and stares at the family portrait on the wall, hanging where it's always been. They all look so happy and healthy, without a care in the world. It's not long before the image makes his stomach twist into knots and he has to look away.

 _Why did you have to leave so soon?_

Strip's mind starts racing and he's desperate to find something else to focus on. For a while- he doesn't keep track of how long- he fixates on Lynda's sleeping figure, watching her silhouette rise and fall gently. He wishes he could fall asleep as easily as she could, to close his eyes and block everything out, to clear his head of the what-ifs and should-haves and retreat further into himself. He's desperate to dream again and pretend that everything is alright, to see Eric and Tamara laughing and smiling alongside him once more. To keep them alive for just a bit longer.

Sleep never comes. Maybe tomorrow will be his lucky night, he tells himself for the fifth time this week. Because he'll get better. He has to get better. And if not tomorrow, then the next night, or the night after that.

Thank god he's off season.

There's a sudden and familiar weight at the foot of the bed and Strip feels it slowly crawling its way up to the front. Rolling over, he's suddenly face to face with Cal, whose eyes were equally red and teary.

"Cal? What're you doin' here?" He's startled by how his own voice sounds. It's weak and raspy, barely above a whisper. It wasn't him.

"I had a bad dream. Can I stay here with you and Auntie Lynda?"

"Of course you can, kiddo." He makes room and watches Cal wiggle in between him and Lynda. The room falls silent and Strip finally starts nodding off, but then the four year old speaks up.

"What happened to Mommy and Daddy?"

Cal knows what "death" means. He remembers finding a dead bird at the park and his mother explaining what happened to it. When something dies it stops breathing and it doesn't move anymore. It doesn't eat, or sleep, or feel the hot or cold. It doesn't come back to life. Tamara tells him it usually only happens to people who grow very old or get really sick. He's not supposed to worry about that for a long time.

But then one day Uncle Strip and Auntie Lynda come and tell him Mommy and Daddy died. All he thinks of is the bird in the park and cries for days on end.

The funeral took place yesterday afternoon. They tell him what it's for, and that it's okay to be sad for a long time, because everyone else will be too. But they didn't tell him how his parents passed, why they have to do all of this in the first place. Mommy and Daddy weren't old or sick. That's the only part he can't understand.

Strip hesitates and tries to find the right words. Cal deserves to know the truth, but he didn't want to put an ugly image in his head.

"They died in a car accident." He finally says. "A speeding car crashed into them."

"The other car was driving too fast." Cal translates out loud and furrows his brow. Strip practically hears the gears turning in his head. "Isn't that like racing?"

"No, it's nothin' like racing. Racing is completely different." And legal, but he doesn't need to say that part out loud.

"Are there crashes in racing?"

"There are, but they don't happen all the time. There's lots of things built inside a race car that can keep the driver safe if they do crash."

"So you won't crash and die too?"

"Nope, I'll be comin' back after every race to be with you and Auntie Lynda."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Okay." His nephew's voice still sounds broken. Defeated. His eyes well up again and he sniffs, curling up against his uncle. "I miss them. I miss Mommy and Daddy."

"I miss them too." The front of Strip's shirt is damp from Cal's tears, but he hugs him anyways and gently pets his messy hair. "But what do you think they'd say to us if they saw us now?"

"To not cry over them anymore. They'd want everyone to be happy." Cal's voice is muffled by the shirt. He pauses for a bit and adds, "And to go back to sleep."

"Yeah, they probably would want us to do that." Strip can't help but chuckle and ruffle Cal's hair. He could see the little kid's eyes drooping and breathing evening out. "We'd better get some rest now if we wanna wake up early tomorrow."

"Okay…" Cal yawns and closes his eyes. "Good night, Uncle Strip."

"Good night, Cal." Silence again, though peaceful this time. A wave of exhaustion overwhelms Strip and he closes his eyes with a quiet sigh. His body is light, his thoughts blur together.

The weight of the world comes pressing down and pulls him under.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Love that present tense! Pretty much most of the angsty stuff's outta the way now, so any more chapters I may or may not post in the future are most likely prompts for the AU! That being said, I'm going to mark this fic as "completed" until I get more inspiration to write :V Thanks for reading!


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